Monsignor Michael Farmer, vicar general of the Mobile archdiocese, heads to Rome for 4-year appointment

(Press-Register/John David Mercer)The Rev. Monsignor Michael Farmer, vicar general of the Mobile archdiocese, is on his way to Rome for a 4-year appointment with the Pontifical North American College. He discussed his journey of faith, and his pastoral career, at the chancery of the Mobile archdiocese.

MOBILE - As vicar general of the Mobile archdiocese, the Rev. Monsignor Michael Farmer — who soon begins a four-year appointment in Rome — is second in charge to Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi in presiding over the 28 counties of central and south Alabama, including the cities of Montgomery, Auburn and Dothan.

In addition to his administrative duties, Farmer serves as local spokesperson for the Catholic church.

“Not Michael Farmer’s take on things,” he explained of that role, “but the official position of the archbishop, or archdiocese.”

A quietly eloquent man with a dry sense of humor, Farmer’s new appointment will take him back to the seminary where he got his training — the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

“It sits on a hill overlooking the dome of St. Peter’s,” he said during a conversation at the Archdiocese chancery in Mobile.

As vice-rector of administration for the Pontifical College, Farmer will be a high-ranking administrator and help train new priests in conducting sacraments.

He added, with a ready laugh: “The prisoner returns as warden.”

Although Farmer can be humorous when talking about his accomplishments — “I’ve been called ‘a bureaucrat for the diocese,’” he said — he is serious when addressing his faith.

He recalled walking into St. Peter’s Basilica on his first trip to Rome as a new seminarian.

“I was awestruck,” he said.

“It’s the largest Christian edifice in the world. For Catholics, it’s about who’s buried there — St. Peter. It was an awesome experience, but also reassuring.

“As a Catholic, we believe in a faith based on Jesus Christ and the apostolic authority of Peter and the other apostles.”

For Farmer, who began as a pastor at St. Bede’s Catholic Church in Montgomery, and is now pastor of St. Joseph’s Church in Mobile and rector of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, any place is holy.

His sophomore year in high school he attended Mass as the Dominican Monastery of St. Jude in Marbury, Ala. <EP>“That led to all kinds of questions,” he said. <EP>He became ever more interested in Catholicism, at first from his love of history.

After beginning to attend Mass at a local church, he decided to take formal instruction, then became a convert.

As a history student at Auburn University-Montgomery, he felt his first callings to be a pastor.

After a summer in England, where he went to Mass every day, he returned to AUM, graduated, and told his parents his plans.

“They were supportive,” he said.

In fact, he added, his mother and father eventually became Catholic themselves.

Even though he had known few Catholic Alabamians, he discovered communities of shared faith.

At the time he went to seminary, he said, about a third of the Catholic priests in Alabama were natives of the state, a third were from elsewhere in the U.S., and a third were Irish.

Now he figures that nearly half of the clergy in Alabama hail from the Heart of Dixie.

“We are very proud of Father Farmer being asked to assume such an important duty for the life of the church in the U.S.,” Shields said.

“Father Farmer has been universally admired and respected by clergy and laity alike. He’s proven he can handle a number of different tasks. He brought a wonderful, dry sense of humor to the job which has endeared him to many people. He has no pretensions. He is very direct, and is willing to listen to all people.”

Archbishop Rodi said that Farmer “possesses a wealth of pastoral experience, faith and sensitivity in his ministry.

“I am not surprised that others, even those outside of our archdiocese, recognize his dedicated and talented ministry.”

Rodi admits to having mixed feelings about temporarily losing such a valued colleague and friend.

“The vicar general is a right arm of a bishop,” he wrote in a letter to parishioners.

“Reluctantly,” said Rodi, “but with confidence in his abilities, I wish him well as he begins his four-year appointment in Rome.”

Farmer said that his replacement as vicar general in Mobile will be the Very Rev. Stephen E. Martin, currently pastor of St. Ignatius Church in Mobile.

Shields will become pastor of St. Ignatius while maintaining his position as president of McGill-Toolen.

Shields was serving as pastor at St. Piux X Catholic Church, a vacancy to be filled by the Rev. Johnny Savoie.

In Rome, Farmer looks forward to working with the new, upcoming priests as an administrator and educator.

He speaks of “the John Paul II generation,” referring to those who coming of age was influenced by the “charisma and life story” of the late Pope.

“There’s been a resurgence of the church in people returning around the world,” Farmer said.

“You see this in young guys coming into seminary after all the sexual abuse scandal in church.

“They have been discerning their call in the midst of all this scandal. You’ll get a generation of priests who’ve had their faith tested by the filth of a few.

“They’re on fire with the gospel, and strong in their Catholic faith.”

Farmer will maintain his status as a priest in the Mobile archdiocese, and says he will miss his home and parishioners here.

But in addition to his spiritual work in Rome, he will relish other pleasures abroad.